in touch with the root of your upset?”
His usually upbeat and cheerful manager looked as though someone had dropkicked his puppy off a rooftop. Gray eyes were haunted, rimmed with dark circles—Braun wasn’t lying when he said Liam would scare off the customers. The boy had lost some weight over the last couple weeks, and Braun was concerned for him.
William Carradine was a good friend, an excellent manager, and Braun trusted him not only with his club, but with his reputation. Bisexual with a leaning more toward men, the Dominant held everyone’s respect and the subbies flocked to him like rats to the Pied Piper.
“Phone’s off,” Liam muttered as he polished a glass with lethargic precision. “Won’t answer my calls, my messages. I think she’d slam the door in my face if I went to her apartment. I fucked up, Braun. I seriously fucked up.”
Yeah, his friend needed a good kick up the ass, all right. Good job Braun had already taken steps to get his buddy back into the right frame of mind. “You sound more like a submissive than a goddamn Dom right now, boy. Maybe I should ask Connie to take you upstairs for a few hours, spank this shit outta you.”
Capable hands set the shined glass on the shelf beneath the bar, picked another up out of the dishwasher and began to polish. “I know you’re joking, but I’d deserve it. What I said was out of order. Her family’s a huge sore spot for her and I opened my big mouth without thinking and punched her right where it hurts.”
Braun rubbed his chin and propped a heavy boot on the stool next to him. He much preferred his current attire to the damn monkey suit he’d been forced to wear today—black jeans, black silk shirt, and his steel-toed boots set him in the right mood for dominating pretty little subs. “She’s what, early thirties? She’s an adult, Liam, my lad. She’ll come around.”
“Twenty-seven,” Liam corrected with a sigh. “Her family is...they’re fucking assholes, to be blunt. They’ve treated her like shit since she was a kid. Her sister got in an accident when they were younger, and her parents blamed Bodie. They made her life hell until she moved out, then they started taking money off her as soon as she got a job and started earning.”
Eyes narrowed, Braun tried to digest that. “What, a few dollars every month?”
Liam’s laugh was brittle and bitter. “I wish. She handed over almost two grand about six weeks ago. It was everything she had saved up, her rent money, the lot. And before you say something about her not giving into her family’s demands, the assholes operate the same as any blackmailers do. If she doesn’t give them everything when they order her to, bad things happen.”
Fury kindled in his gut. “Bad things?”
Liam swapped glasses again. “She refused them a couple times when she was younger. I think the first time she was maybe eighteen. Just moved into her own place, some shithole she could barely afford. The landlord was an asshole, refused to do repairs, harassed her if she sneezed. She came home and her father was waiting for her. He’d trashed the place, smashed up the door and spray painted the walls with obscenities. He roughed her up pretty bad, warned her if she didn’t pay what she owed, he’d send his friends next time...and they’d do more than just smack her around.”
Heavy boots hit the wooden floor like gunshots. “Her father threatened to have his friends rape her?”
“Abraham doesn’t threaten. If she hadn’t paid him everything she had at the time, he’d have done exactly that.” The same fury bubbling in Braun’s blood gleamed in Liam’s eyes. “The second time was a few years later. Bodie had enough of handing over her savings and stood up to her mother. Brave of her, considering she’s...not endowed in the confidence department sometimes. She hates confrontation, and her mother thrives on it.”
What the hell kind of family had raised the girl? Braun wondered. They sounded more like monsters than humans. His hand clenched tightly around his soda, hard enough he thought he heard the glass crack. “What happened?”
“Diane’s a hardcore bitch. She’s notorious in the area where we grew up. By the time she was fifteen, she ran her own gang out of her parents’ garage and terrorized the neighborhood for years. Robberies, muggings, assault and battery...you name it, Diane had a hand in it.”
Braun set his drink